by S. Linda Jensen

Created on: July 03, 2009

Race may play a part in some prejudices against a variety of ethnic groups but the real issue is not the color of skin or the slant of a person's eyes it is often our own conscience that pre-judges and creates the prejudices. Prejudice is the dislike, the hate, and lack of understanding of other people's cultures, values, political views, personal appearance and gender. Surely there are more reasons but we can begin with the observation that many social and economic segments of the world today include not only people of different colors, they dress differently, language is not the same as ours, and they have different religions and lifestyles than we do. We are an intolerant and multi-cultural, judgemental world indeed.

Who are we, that includes everyone on the planet; prejudice is not a one-way street! Being judgemental is human nature. Our individual conscience and our group conscience tend to judge everyone and every thing we encounter in life. We judge not only each other but ourselves as well.

Blacks resent many whites, Jews hate Palestinians; Hispanic people dislike many other cultures; most Americans of all races don't like immigrants; this list can go on forever.You find the rich don't enjoy the poor regardless of race. Stupid people or illiterate people hate smart, educated individuals. Skinny people have low tolerance for fat people regardless of color. Sick people are needy and many people don't want to be around them regardless of color. Young people don't like old people and vice versa, regardless of color. Rednecks are not fond of socialites in most cases. Gangs hate other gangs regardless of color. Criminals prefer to hate different kinds of criminal for various reasons.As you begin to realize none of the real reasons for prejudice are about color but in fact about differences perhaps a light is beginning to shine in your mind! Our conscience tells us it is uncomfortable, we judge the situation to be somehow unacceptable to our way of thinking. Often we feel pressure from peers to show prejudice and our conscience is in fact telling us to feel otherwise and stand up for our beliefs. Both sides know the issue is from each person's conscience intolerance and lack of understanding towards the situation and people involved. There is always more than one side to every situation.

Everyone judges someone and in doing so we also find our conscience allows us to judge our personal thoughts, actions and behaviors. We give ourselves permission

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